A Winner Is You! Sylar
by Yellowfur
Summary: For avatarjk137's "A Winner Is You!" challenge. Sylar entered this to face the best of the best... the most special ones around...
1. Intro

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sylar/Gabriel Grey, any brand names used unless specified otherwise, or the concept of the mall or contest.**

**Here's my other entry for avatarjk137's "A Winner Is You!" challenge, Sylar/Gabriel Grey from _Heroes_. To read more about the contest, go to avatarjk137 and his forum. **

Gabriel Grey gave a slight smile as he sat on a cheap fake-wood chair in the middle of the otherwise-empty food court. Though there weren't supposed to be staff members manning the food court, the McDonald's somehow had a set of employees available anyway. Maybe they came _with_ the store, like stoves and deep fryers? Gabriel shoved another spoonful of vanilla soft-serve in his mouth before he tilted his baseball cap-clad head all the way back to look up at the enormous dome ceiling, eighty stories up. _This place is incredible. It really is… special. _You knew he was serious – Gabriel was not one to use the word 'special' lightly. This trait especially presented itself in how this tournament was making him somewhat angry. He was supposed to be here fighting people who were special, just like him. But it was turning out to be a joke.

His smile faded and (charmingly) thick, dark eyebrows furrowed as his memory jolted back to why he was here when some teen girl he had seen at the orientation walked into the food court's vicinity. She appeared to be checking out the stores, stopping in front of the hugest Louis Vuitton store she had ever seen, hunger gleaming in her well-made-up eyes as she stared at the latest bag collection. He hated people he had seen like _her_. Gabriel was under the impression that he would be fighting the best of the best. The most powerful. What if he ended up fighting someone like her? To him, this contest had lied – the people here weren't so powerful, they were just so weird. _There's a DIFFERENCE, they should know. And they call these people special. It's disgusting!! Please. A rich girl. I saw some Goth girl, too. Some kid with a straw hat and a stupid smile. Maybe there are some special people here, but care they honestly useful to me? A demon made of chocolate. Don't make me laugh; something out of some psychotic kid's fantasy. _He swallowed his latest spoonful of ice cream hard.

Angrily he dug back into his plastic cup with his matching plastic spoon, only to realize there was no ice cream left. Gabriel sighed, pushed the brim of his cap back down a bit, and got up, throwing out the cup and spoon. He stuck his hands in his jeans and stalked off from the food court, a smile spreading across his face once again. So what if he was the most 'special' thing to happen to this tournament? He would just have to make the most of the hand he's dealt with. And though that may not be the most appealing way to describe it, he decided to think more positively. _I'll find a way to get SOMETHING out of this tournament. And I'm sure I'll be having a little fun on the way._

* * *


	2. Round 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters used within, or the concept of the tournament or the mall.**

**Here's Sylar's Round 1 battle. I don't think it's as good as Massie's, but if I advance, I'm sure things'll get better - I'm gathering some nasty ideas for Sylar, should aforementioned advancement be green-lighted.**

* * *

Sylar was more than ready. He and his opponent, Wolverine, stood at the center of the mall. Sylar was aware of the other contestants watching him from the third floor, some of them rowdy and cheering, but elected not to pay them any mind. Wasn't like they deserved it, anyway.

Sylar kept his baseball cap on so he could study his opponent without this being all that noticeable. The man was somewhat (okay, a lot) gruff-looking and short. His stance – confident, almost like a fighting stance but came just short of caring enough for this to be an accurate way to describe it – and general aura was somewhat intimidating, but Sylar wasn't thrown. If he really wanted to be, he could be just as intimidating. The fact that he could remove the top of your head with a few finger movements could do it alone. But subtlety was better. He'd prefer to wait as long as possible before his cover was blown.

The Death By Chocolate demon took out a megaphone and said something to the effect of initiating the round. But Sylar was only vaguely aware of this; he was busy concentrating on something in the center of the ceiling.

_A camera. _Sylar briefly remembered being told this tournament would be televised… "Wait, before we start, I have one question."

"Yes?" The spirit-dessert looked down at him.

"That camera up there. Is that the only one in this area?"

"Unfortunately for our viewers, yes, that is the only angle in here. Cameras get more numerous once you branch out more. Damned mall planners… what the hell is a mall planner anyway… Why? You like being the center of attention."

Sylar smirked. "Not particularly."

"Then good for you. READY?"  
Wolverine tossed his cigar in the fountain.

"BEGIN!"

Sylar made a slight upward slicing motion.

Wolverine had stepped back in reflex, but regained his stance, now cautious. "Was that how it was supposed to go?" His turn to smirk.

Sylar's grin widened in response, his eyes shadowed by his hat. "_Yes_."

Half of the camera fell onto Wolverine's head with a metallic-sounding clunk. He grunted and jumped away. Brushing off his head (relatively uninjured), he looked at the remains of the now broken electronic device.

Sylar simply stood, grinning. His plan was going to go smoothly. After all, since he didn't think there was much special about Wolverine but didn't want to risk losing opportunity for a new power by just skipping over him, he wanted to end this fight quickly. The easiest way to do this would be to just slice his head open, no theatrics, no delays, no beating around the bush. Sylar also realized he didn't really want everybody watching this tournament to know he was, well, Sylar. He may not make it through the whole tournament keeping this under wraps, but it would be nice to put it off as long as possible. And who cares if the other contestants knew who he was? If they threatened to tell, he'll just kill them in the night and make it look like an accident or better yet, self-defense.

Wolverine jumped to begin attacking him.

Electing to use another slice motion instead of his careful sawing, Sylar sliced the air again with his telekinetic powers.

Got his target, Wolverine's skull –

Wolverine is thrown back a bit by the force –

The force slices through his skin and makes sparks across his metal skull.

Sylar recoiled as Wolverine rose from the ground, rubbing his forehead wound. _That was supposed to slice his skull OPEN. What in the hell IS his skull made of?_

The wound closed up, leaving a few droplets of blood, which Wolverine wiped away.

Sylar's mouth dropped. _What in the hell is HE?! _He bit his lip. Didn't he know enough regenerating people already?!

Sylar was so distracted that he didn't notice Wolverine initiating another attack. Wolverine gave him one good punch in the face, sending him flying back a fair amount.

Sliding to a stop, Sylar didn't let the taste of blood stop him. He pushed himself back up and attempted more of his telekinetic slices. "Your skull may be hard, but you must have a weak spot!!" He sliced everywhere; arms, legs, torso, neck. _Yes. Neck is good. _Another for good measure right there. Wolverine went down, a bleeding, crumpling mass. Sylar's smile came back home. On the neck was a good one.

Sylar stole a glance at the other fighters up above to see what their reactions were. The young man with green hair and swords was leaning over the railing, keeping a calm exterior but showed some interest in the fight. The preteen girl pretended to have her eyes shielded, but was sneaking a peek between her fingers. The other teen girl, the goth, didn't bother shielding her eyes and smiled at the thrill of the fight.

Secure in their surprise, Sylar turned back to Wolverine. _WHAT THE HELL? _He stumbled backwards as Wolverine rose yet again. He caught the marble ring around the fountain to keep himself from totally losing his balance. _That's impossible!! Look at him, covered in blood, clothes sliced up, but not a scratch on his skin! Another healer. _

_Just my luck. _

"Wanna try another clever trick, kid?" Wolverine growled.

Sylar sighed. Truth be told, that was his only real option. He could hold his own in a fight long enough to distract somebody or to save his life, but hand-to-hand combat just really wasn't his thing. But was it Wolverine's thing? Maybe he just looked tough and had a metal skeleton, but wasn't great in fighting. It was very unlikely, but if it was the case, then Sylar could just knock him out. It was worth a try… "No, I'll just fight you and see how that goes." He put up his fists.

With a _shink_, sharp metal claws popped out of Wolverine's knuckles.

Sylar's eyes widened. _Or maybe we should just stick with clever tricks._

Wolverine approached him. Sylar considered running. Could he outrun his opponent? Only possibly. He still wasn't ready to leave the vicinity of the now out-of-action cameras he took care of; he wasn't ready for _everyone_ to know his secret quite yet. He looked around. A Pottery Barn. _That'll do. _Sylar reached out and used his telekinesis to 'grab' a bookshelf from inside and sent it crashing through the window and towards Wolverine.

Wolverine jump-kicked it, and it went flying diagonally towards a Guess store. The furniture went through the store window as well as a couple clothes racks.

"Cool!" The goth and green-haired guy said at the same time.

"NO!" The preteen girl shouted.

Sylar growled in frustration. That was too easy for Wolverine, who wasn't even panting with any manner of physical strain. Tossing anything else would probably go the same way. Sylar looked around at the designer clothes store, the Apple electronics store, the apple (fruit) store (which he would question the absurd location of later), one of many music shops. There has to be something. The fountain, the Starbucks stand, the escalator, the ceiling… as a thought popped up in Sylar's head, Wolverine charged again, faster than before. _Would it work? Would it qualify? No time, have to try it! _When Wolverine was in his vicinity, Sylar lifted his hand, and made a grabbing motion.

Wolverine was stopped, pushed back a few inches, and lifted up.

Sylar grinned. "How about that."

Wolverine grimaced. "Not _again_."

With an even wider, manic grin, Sylar grunted as he thrust diagonally upwards with more force than was sufficient. Like a gruff little pinball, Wolverine went flying through the glass ceiling, over the mall, the parking lot, and the nearest interstate highway.

"Well, I'm going to really go out on a limb here and say Sylar won this round!" Death By Chocolate shouted.

Sylar smiled and nodded for his applause. Details about the next round were being announced, and he was only vaguely aware of what they were saying exactly. He walked to the food court, hoping for some more ice cream, or maybe pudding this time… or maybe something actually sustainable nutrition-wise. After all, that fight was somewhat difficult! _I simply can't let it happen again. Too many people already know part of what I can do. Oh well, it __**won't**__ happen again._ _They don't know the half of what I can do. Especially not after this morning's… events._

Sylar went over to the Starbucks booth, having decided on coffee, just for now. He had to spend some time practicing. And maybe he would find that Wolverine and practice on him. There had to be some way to get to the brain, and if there wasn't, then hey – it would be a nice practice session either way for some new skills…


	3. Round 2

Sylar sighed. He willed himself, straining, to not underestimate his partner.

Though it was hard.

His opponent was decked out in what appeared to be some sort of ninja outfit with a yellow theme and stud and skull accents, face mask included. He struck some sort of slightly kooky martial arts pose… and had been holding it for the past seven minutes.

Sylar's upper lip curled. He looked up to where the other contestants and host were. "Can we _please_ get started?"

Death by Chocolate laughed heartily. Sylar couldn't help but notice that the demon seemed to like him despite what he had a feeling was a scary aura he was giving off, especially since his friend round, in which he showed an ability to (usually) be able to saw people's heads open telepathically. In fact, many other contestants didn't seem thrown that he was so powerful. And unfortunately, _this_ threw _him_ a bit.

"Fine. Sylar versus Scorpion. Ready…"

Sylar flexed his fingers.

"BEGIN."

Sylar's opponent disappeared.

He was caught off guard for a quick moment. Sylar recovered and whipped around. _Teleportation?! _Not fast enough. Scorpion was behind him and his fist connected just as Sylar had turned around.

Sylar shook his head and got up. _Not a bad hit. _ He whipped his hand and tried to do a quick telekinetic slice. Just as his opponent realized this, he teleported – mid-slice. He popped up a few feet away, a shallow cut on his shoulder.

Teleportation. Not bad, but a one-trick pony. Sylar smiled and clenched his fist. He shot his arm forward and realized a little burst of telekinetic energy in a _POP_ just as his opponent jumped forward. Scorpion was sent sliding back, but recovered fast. He charged and did a backflip when he got close enough.

_Some backflip martial arts move, I've got it covered_. Sylar prepared to counter it as he saw Scorpion's foot come down towards him. In those couple seconds, though, his equilibrium was thrown when he saw-

_FIRE?!_

His foot hit his head and Sylar hit the floor. He groaned and immediately lifted himself up – bad idea. His vision blurred. Scorpion kicked him across the floor.

Sylar picked himself up – slower, this time – and realized that the top of his head hurt from the kick and the right side of his head was burnt. He gingerly touched the singed hair and realized that, though painful, the fire hadn't done much damage as it was probably intended to. _Either he has poor control, or I got lucky for one hit. Fire, teleportation. This could be easier, but I suppose it could be a lot harder. _He faced his opponent and narrowed his eyes. _And now he's just…?_

"GET OVER HERE!"

Sylar's eyes widened his shock and he tried to stumble out of the way as a rope dart flew towards him. He didn't get away in time. The dart punctured his shoulder and he cried out in pain before he was being harshly yanked off his feet and towards his opponent.

Sylar saw his opponent's face coming closer. _Think you're in control?!_

Closer.

Closer. _I'M in control!!_

He did the same telekinetic pop he had done earlier, with more force. He had just come into contact with his opponent as he did this, point-blank impact sending Scorpion back a good fifteen feet right into mall fountain.

Sylar pulled the rope dart out. "Oh, how good for me!" His smirk reappeared. Scorpion stood in the water and climbed out, preparing to attack again, before Sylar slowly dragged his finger across the air. Scorpion cried out in pain as a deep slice appeared across his chest, falling to the ground.

Sylar ignored the throbbing pain in his head and kept his hand on the wound in his shoulder. "There. I win. Again."

The crowd upstairs erupted in applause. Sylar gave them a brief glance of recognition before walking out of view of the cameras to receive medical attention. _My opponents are getting better. This could be a problem, since this round was not exactly a walk in the park. However… _He looked over his shoulder to where Scorpion was being surrounded by a team of doctors. His wound was bad, but he would live. Scorpion had some good tricks up his sleeve.

And so did Sylar.

Sylar smirked once again. His opponents were getting better, but he would be too…


	4. Round 3: Team Battle

**Disclaimer: I own none of the characters used within.**

**Looks like Sylar's digging up some new stuff for you. **

**While I like the action in this one more than in Massie's team battle, as far as originality goes, the action I believe is even shorter. If you were actually watching it, that sure would suck. Because then you'd have like twenty-five minutes in a half-hour TV show to kill. Heh. Get it? Kill. And it's Sylah. **

* * *

For the first time in this tournament, Sylar was feeling quite happy and positive. "Let me just say, sir, that it is a pleasure to be teamed up with you."

The old man smiled. Sylar could see warmness in his eyes – a fire.

Sylar smiled back. This man seemed indeed quite special, just something about his manner… confident yet restrained… yes, it would be a pleasure to have his powers later.

Sylar glanced at his opponents. He knew the green-haired man, who was putting his bandana on and getting his swords out, was very skilled, but nothing... tangible for him. The oddly styled boy and his dog - Sylar wasn't sure. He had seen him teleport, but didn't quite know how it worked or how he would retrieve it. That one may simply be out of his reach.

Sylar hadn't killed any of his previous opponents yet, despite his original plan to do so. He decided it would be too suspicious for his defeats to suddenly be murdered, and this way, he could throw off anyone who was onto him already. He would take care of them after the whole thing was over, then make a quick getaway, which couldn't be hard. However, this Roku may be just too much to resist. So much power. It may be worth it to put in extra time and thought to make it seem like someone else in the tournament murdered him. Let's see, who would he pin the blame on?...

Sylar leaned to his opponent. "Which would you rather face individually?"

The man's amber eyes looked over the opponents. He shook his head and said, "They will be expecting us to split up. And that's what they will do. We must work together. If it turns out to be one-on-one, so be it, but we should begin in conjuction."

"Round three, match one. Sylar and Avatar Roku versus Roronoa Zoro and Whist! BEGIN!"

Well, he was admittedly unsure about not just splitting up, but come on. This guy was smart and wise, so he had to know Sylar had something of his own agenda - he should be on his best behavior.

Zoro charged, plain and simple. Sylar stepped out to face him, preparing an attack, but saw something coming his way - a flying disc. He was going to slash it, but there was a gust, and it was sent whizzing back to Whist, who had teleported to their side. Zoro was in front of him. He reared to the side for an attack - three sword style. Sylar didn't have time to react now. Three swords confused him - he didn't know which to get rid of when. But a column of earth shot out and cracked through the tile. It hit Zoro's chest with a _THWAM_. He was sent flying back.

Sylar smirked and watched as Zoro went sliding and tumbled a few times into a store window, which cracked. That was probably a decent amount of ribs cracked.

Whist teleported farther away and shot a few more discs. He was doing so in rapid succession. Both Roku and Sylar fended off their fair share for a moment. Sylar hissed to Roku, "I'll keep these things away, you attack him from the side!" Roku nodded and in a few more gusts of wind, was flying through the air around Whist and towards the fountain. Whist noticed and kept them coming in Roku's direction. He was good, but a fast-moving target was still hard. Sylar used his telekinesis to send them away, mimicking Roku's air defense.

But another flash out of the corner of his eye stopped this defense. Zoro was back. Sylar used a telekinetic slash at his chest. But once again, Zoro spun his swords, including the one in his mouth, in quick succession.

At the exact time came a strategically timed disc.

Sylar picked the worst of the two evils. Thinking fast, he extended his arm and tried something he hadn't in a while. It had better work.

The disc embedded itself in Sylar's shoulder. Zoro's swords melted.

"WHAT?!" Zoro shouted as silver liquid spilled over Sylar. (A noticeably burnt-up) Whist teleported away from Roku and over to Sylar. Just in time, a tidal wave of water from the fountain washed over Zoro and Whist.

Sylar used one more ability - he froze the water, capturing them like very shocked sculptures.

The audience cheered as the Death by Chocolate demon announced their victory.

Sylar sighed and took a seat on the ground.

Avatar Roku smiled down at him. "Tired?"

"Yes."

But Sylar looked at Avatar Roku, how the master of all elements managed to come out of his fight without really looking that much worse for wear. Though he said he was tired, a new flame lit up inside Sylar. He was very excited. And unlike many fighters there, who often got the same infectious renergizing spark that after this kind of fight, while they couldn't wait for their next battle, Sylar couldn't wait for the tournament to be over.


	5. Round 4

**Damn. It's not as good as the Massie one. But I at least used something I haven't had Sylar use before. So good for you. Good for me. Good for him. Not good for Roku.**

**--**

_Sylar sat in the cold second stairwell of the fourth floor._

_He had just been to the art shop and had gotten a bunch of paints, not giving it much thought, just grabbing what he thought would work. He kneeled in front of the slightly dirty but mostly unmarred concrete wall. He waited, concentrated, strained a bit, let it come-_

_His eyes clouded over._

_He picked up the paints and began._

--

That precognition painting from last night gave Sylar a reason to smile today. He cracked his neck and flexed his fingers. If he won today, he would be rewarded in the next round. His hard work would lead to something. This whole tournament had point after all.

Sylar was fighting his former companion: Avatar Roku. The Avatar's face was unreadable, his expression pensive. Sylar didn't really like the looks this guy was giving him. No matter. After this round, he wouldn't be a worry anymore. All Sylar could focus on was who he was fighting in the last round. Who he'd get.

It was like being in a raffle. Sylar chuckled; that was a good comparison.

His painting was of himself taking the powers of an unidentified person – they were partially cut off (ha ha!) – with the judges and the crowd smiling above. _The demon gave me thumbs-up for crying out loud._

They approved of his killing someone.

"Round 4. Sylar vs. Avatar Roku. BEGIN!"

"I know what you are capable of," Roku stated. There was some definitely fire in his eyes, but somehow, no warmth. "I will not hold back." He started immediately. The fountain, a now familiar asset to him, rose up out of its structure and circled around and above him. He turned them to sharp arrows and shot the water at him.

Sylar used a telekinetic shield and simultaneously turned the projectiles to ice, and they smashed across the shield. "If you know what I'm capable of, then why do you bother with the fancy tricks?"

The next round would not be the first time Sylar would be able to steal someone's powers. He shot a blast of fire at Roku, fire powers courtesy of Scorpion two rounds ago.

Roku waved his arm and brushed it away as if it were a fly. "You're not the only multi-talented one around here. Watch and learn." He shot his arms upward, and two towers of fire roared up. Then he turned his hands to Sylar and did this again.

Shock only held back Sylar for a minute before he telekinetically threw a lone pretzel stand in front of him for a shield. Even with this, fire erupted around him.

When it was over, Sylar got up. He telekinetically threw the cart at Roku, who used his fire blast once again to toss the (now red hot) metal cart over to Sylar. He liquefied it before it came close enough to cover him with a wave of hot liquid metal.

Roku did not seem put off in the least by his attacks failing so far. He used his earth bending to manipulate the stone tiles. He levitated one, jumped on it, and shot up into the air. He lifted a few tiles… then a few dozen… then he had a couple hundred.

Sylar looked around at the hundreds of sharp, heavy slabs of stone waiting to come flying at him. _Even I… don't like this. _They all shot him and he made a telekinetic shield to cover him all around.

Roku was flying at him now. "If I were you, I wouldn't depend too heavily on that one form of defense!"

"Defend _this_!" Sylar liquefied the tile he was using to get around and Roku went flying through the air.

Roku quickly recovered and used another tile to ease himself back to the ground, but then abandoned it. He shot yet another blast of fire at Sylar, who used yet another shield to repel it.

"Stop using the same forms of attack over and over! Practice what you preach!" Sylar teleported into one of the stores across from where he, Roku, and the other contestants were, and on the fifth floor.

Sylar sneered. "An entire store for massage chairs?!"

"IT'S WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT!" Death by Chocolate called out from across the makeshift arena and down a couple stories.

Roku wasted no time using his tiles to get to the store. Sylar tried to use some of the chairs as projectiles, but Roku used his airbending and blasted them away. When he reached the store, Sylar tried using his fire again. The force of his blast was greater than he estimated and it actually knocked him off balance, back a few feet, while Roku had no trouble quelling it. Wasting no time of Sylar being caught off balance, he used another air gust and Sylar flying across the room into the wall, smashing a poster advertising all areas of your life affected by muscle tension. He then used a tile flipped sideways and shot into Sylar, knocking the wind out of him, probably breaking a few ribs, and successfully pinning him to the wall.

Sylar squirmed a bit in protest as Roku came up to him. "You are young. You need more practice."

Sylar growled. "Shut up! You have no idea! You don't know anything about me! I can control myself!"

Roku shook his head slowly. "I do know much about you," His hands glowed more and more. "And you _can't_ control yourself."

Sylar concentrated hard, hoping he wouldn't learn right now the limits of his telekinesis.

That entire side of the fifth, sixth, and seventh stories collapsed in one them.

The noise was deafening. This didn't stop Death by Chocolate from screaming furiously, "NO! NO! THE MALL! THE CONSTRUCTION! THE WORLD'S THIRD BIGGEST GODIVA STORE!"

Sylar used his spherical telekinetic shield to pop out of the rubble. Then, still using his powers, he popped an unconscious Roku out of the rubble. "You can check… he's alive…" For now.

Death by Chocolate roared, "YOU WIN, YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARD!"

The crowd cheered. Sylar climbed the last bit of his way out of the rubble, gave a small wave, and promptly passed out.


	6. Round Five

"This is a joke," Sylar said.

"Yeah… it's hilarious!"

Sylar was absolutely, without a doubt, not hiding it all, to the extreme, pissed off. He was not getting much out of this tournament. Where were the powers he had promised himself? He was working hard. Why was he not reaping the benefits?

After every round, he had the intent of stealing his opponent's powers. He had stolen the powers of one contestant. One. That wasn't even the opponent he was very interested in. Besides that, there was always something to stop him. People were trying to interview him for TV specials or sports magazines. His picture was always requested. Sylar hated the media. Sylar hated crowds.

Sylar never got his hands on his first round opponent, Wolverine and his healing abilities. He was just like Claire. But with more. And he slipped away.

And Roku! How could he miss getting power _over the elements_? No one would be as powerful as him. No one would be like Sylar. And what happened both times he fought Roku? He needed _medical attention_ and was too tired to go after him and be well enough to fight in his next round.

And now this tournament… a crowd had gathered. That horrible demon had gotten a mob of people to gather around and cheer for carnage and death and all those other chores of Sylar's.

A mob of people. Watching the violence.

And Sylar hated the media. Sylar hated crowds.

Sylar's head was pounding. He briefly acknowledged the calling of this round beginning. Deadpool was striking… some sort of pose. Not quite a battle pose, not quite a model's pose…

"This is my ninja pose."

Sylar clutched his shaking left hand into a fist. He had a small, forced, non-focused smile. "Do you practice being a ninja?"

"Nope!"

Sylar brought his hand up in a flash. Deadpool's head was split in half. Sylar was panting. "I am not joking here! I am not here to play around with some infantile mutant experiment man! I am sick of facing ninjas and fighting alongside little furry things and little girls! This whole tournament has been a waste of my time!!" He faced the nearest camera and with one hand movement, dismantled it completely. He then turned to Deadpool.

Deadpool had gotten up. It seemed there wasn't much of a problem. Except the blood on his skull. "You're a downer! _Tuesdays with Morrie_ much?"

Sylar growled and did the same action as before, watching carefully now and catching his breath as Deadpool was out for approximately two minutes.

Deadpool was up. "SERIOUSLY! That's a bummer! I bet you kick puppies! Golden retriever ones!" He whipped out two katanas from on his back.

Sylar melted the katanas and then did a few more slices on Deadpool's torso. These slices weren't like the neat, even slices Sylar does on people's skulls to get their coveted superpowers. These slices were ragged and messy.

Sylar turned his attention now to the audience on the second floor. They had nice seats set out for them. They looked like they were waiting for something more. They had been given an appetizer of violence. But they knew Deadpool would be up again and wanted to see what would be next.

"You're such a lovely crowd today," Sylar gave them an open-mouthed smile. "Look at you, getting all involved. Some of you are on the edge of your seats." His dark eyes scanned them. "A lot of you look like potential shoppers, but… I think there are also some friends and family of the contestants. There are some pretty special contestants. I wonder if the same applies to those they hold near and dear…" Still smiling, he lifted up his fingers.

And an arrow shot through his left bicep.

"Don't ask me where I got this!" Deadpool brandished it like a flag. "I don't want to relive the memories!"

Sylar yanked it out and grunted in pain. He took a few seconds, then said, "Oh, great. Magic endless satchel. What a wonderful ability for me to have to deal with." He dropped the bloody arrow. "I only mean in this fight, of course. I'm not going to burden myself with your ridiculous parody powers."

"Methinks he doth _burn_ me!" Deadpool did actually sound insulted. "Thou art… a total jerk. You could just say you don't like my powers instead of making me so upset I go all iambic pentameter on your ass like just now. Did you feel it? I totally did it." He loaded another arrow in his bow. "Iambic…" He shot it. "PENTAMETER!"

Sylar flicked the arrow away. "Your aim is excellent. Too bad it has no use to you here." He shot a little fireball (again, courtesy of Scorpion) at the bow.

Deadpool tossed it away. "That's not very environmental!" He decided now on a closer range physical attack, charging Sylar and producing another katana.

Sylar used his powers to deflect the sword (and Deadpool himself). "Not happening!" Sylar then turned to face the crowd. He sliced down one of the columns holding up the second story. Immediately it began to tilt and crumble. A few people shrieked. Sylar took down three more columns. Part of the second story went crashing through some stores, as did a few people. Two more columns later, many people were precariously balanced on a tilted end of the floor, dangling over. Some just fell (oh the poor uncoordinated beings!). Sylar laughed shakily. "It looks like I've got things just the way I want them. It's simply too bad I'll have to go through _every single head_ to see who can make up for what I've missed so far! What a waste of my time! And your life!"

"Hey!" Death by Chocolate had made it no problem to the first floor. "This will be bad publicity. Which does exist, by the way."

Sylar was going to say something prophetic and clever in response, but was tackled by Deadpool. He stumbled over and the people almost did too. Sylar caught them at the last minute with one hand and with the other hand, pulled back, and gave Deadpool a telekinetic pulse sending him flying through part of the mall (and through at least six stores).

Death by Chocolate shook his impossibly chocolate head. "This will be so bad if my first round of shoppers die by the hands of their entertainment! An you please not do this?"

"What'll I get if I do?" Sylar said pointedly.

"What do you want?"

"An unspecified amount of time… no… an extra round. All to myself. With my choice of opponents."

Death by Chocolate grinned, thinking about how that sounded coincidentally like it could work into his chaos round. "I'll give you a round's worth of the whole mall with every contestant we have. How does that sound?"

"Like fun."

"Goooood. But you still need to win."

"STEREOTYPICAL JAPANESE WORD!" Deadpool had three different stereotypical Japanese weapons (including ninja stars! Flashy!) in both of his hands.

Sylar used one hand to shove the people back up (more shrieking) and the other to _pop off_ the top of Deadpool's recently healed skull. Deadpool fell and went skidding past him a few feet, leaving a snail-like red trail.

"I win," Sylar declared.

Death by Chocolate clapped. No one else did.

"You won't be out long, so I'll take care of this now," Sylar bent down over the brain, smiling once again. "You only live once…"


End file.
